How Hillary got robbed

Suppressing Democratic turnout has become a Republican specialty

Desmond King and Rogers Smith

Hillary Clinton won the popular vote by more than 2.8m ballots in 2016. A shift of roughly 40,000 votes in the swing states of Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania would have given her the Electoral College victory that went to Donald Trump.

What happened? Of many possible explanations, two matter most for the democratic future of the United States. One is that the Democrats lost the support of white working-class voters, particularly men, by emphasising the “identity politics” of minorities and women instead of economic grievances. A second is that they lost through vote suppression by Republican officials in the swing states.

About Prospect Magazine

In Prospect’s February issue: Tom Clark and Luke Harding examine the attacks facing democracy. Clark reviews two books on democracy and suggests a new intellectual assault may be on the horizon. Harding looks at Russia’s attempts to derail the democratic process by focussing on its technical frailty. Melissa Deckman asks why women voted for Trump, while Duncan Bell charts the story of the Anglosphere and suggests Brexiteers are indulging in an old fantasy.
Also in this issue: Matthew Harries asks if it’s time to ban the nuclear bomb, Adam Mars-Jones looks at the way we perceive aliens in films and Elizabeth Pisani explores the role of activists in changing the perception of Aids and its pushing for treatment.